Shenanigans
by Coat
Summary: Three shenanigans from James and Lily's life. Set after Takes Notice.


"So, I was just wondering something."

James lent back on his rickety chair and regarded the redhead watching him with her head tilted to one side. His three other friends also looked, from the various positions in which they were sprawled around the library table, up at Lily.

"Wonder away, fair one," intoned James, in his best Her-ha-I-am-the-great-wizard-Elfendork voice, it made him sound a bit of an idiot, but she had never taken the opportunity to tell him so, because it also made his voice deepen to a tone that could, when spoken close enough to her person, let Lily feel it hit her chest, shivering behind her sternum.

"I was wondering," she leaned her hip against James' chair, which he brought back to all four legs with a _thump_, "How you could have possibly have missed it."

And now she had all four of them hanging in rapt attention on her words, because these boys, to a man, hated missing a trick.

"Intriguing." Said Sirius. "And also risky. What, oh love of James' life, have we missed?"

Lily blushed, because it was not that long ago, all things considered, when she had been loath to admit that James Potter even existed. But she carried on. "Well, it's your name." She nodded at Sirius. "I just wondered how you had missed it."

"Missed my _name_? What?"

Lily decided that she liked taunting people. She could sort of see why they did it so much. "Really." She shook her head mock-mournfully, "I don't think you've even considered the possibility. Because I'm pretty sure if you had you'd be milking the situation for all it was worth."

"Lily." James rolled his eyes. "Just put them out of their misery."

"Why have you never exploited the fact that your name sounds so much like 'serious'?"

A collective sigh ran round the table, Remus went back to his book, content, Peter again started making a card tower with Exploding Snap cards, always a risky business, and Sirius tilted his head back and chuckled. James rested his book on the arm of his chair and, with the faintest pressure on her hip, guided Lily onto his lap.

"Lily." James said, gravely, "We figured that out on our first train ride to Hogwarts. Right after, I think, you left our compartment." He thankfully didn't expand on the circumstances of _that_ event. "And we decided, after about two minutes laughing, to never mention it again."

"Why?" Lily was tempted to rest her head on James' shoulder, partly because it would be more comfortable but mostly because he had a wonderful voice to sit and listen to, totally relaxed. She felt a bit like giving him a storybook and getting him to read to her.

"Too obvious." Muttered Sirius. He was lying on the floor, half under the table, doing... something with his wand and a piece of velvet. "Even you figured it out."

Lily turned her head up to James'. "Could you kick him for me? My legs aren't long enough to reach."

James obliged, and continued with his story. Lily fought the urge to ask for milk and cookies. "It _is_ a bit obvious, once you start thinking about it. And we could see it getting out of hand; it would get to the point where we would be afraid to use the word 'serious' in casual conversation ever again. Also, it didn't fit."

As one, the four of them turned to look at Sirius.

"I... am beginning to see your point." Lily tucked her head under James chin, a move that had him practically purring. "Sirius is about the least serious person I know."

"It'd be like calling Remus 'illiterate'." Said James.

Lily drew back to look him in the eye.

"No, it wouldn't." She mumbled. "The reason being, the words 'Remus' and 'illiterate' sound nothing alike."

James frowned briefly, then looked off to the right, one eyebrow lowering as his face twisted into one of intense concentration.

"You're trying to think of a word that means 'illiterate' that sounds like 'Remus' aren't you?" Lily sighed.

James looked back at her. "Do you have a dictionary?"

Break

It was a solemn building, dark and shadowed by the tall trees that had grown unchecked after it was abandoned many years ago. It really didn't help that the owner, when showing them the place, had gestured around the hall and said, "By the way, this is where I was accidentally born."

Albus Dumbledore's childhood home was really very intimidating. But it was also perfect and so they had decided, reluctantly but unanimously, that it would be the new headquarters for the equally new Order of the Phoenix. If only it wasn't so _gloomy_. It was bad enough that the situation outside was making them depressed, without HQ helping.

It was the second meeting, tonight. At the moment most of it was planning, researching, desperately trying to bring order to the chaos they had to deal with, had signed up to deal with. The newly named Alice Longbottom, youngest person there, wished she wasn't quite so glad to leave the place at the end of every meeting, it made her feel guilty. So now she sat in the corner of the room, wishing that place was a bit more... well a bit more like Hogwarts.

Then five people Apparated into the middle of the room, nearly knocking the table flying.

The reaction was at first one second of shocked incomprehension, then of wands drawn and a curse on everyone's lips. Three of the five figures put up their hands in the classic, 'we surrender' pose, but the other two seemed to hardly notice that they had arrived anywhere.

"Oh, _fine_ James. Just _Apparate_ me away, with_out_ asking my permission, _right_ after you trick me into-"

"Ginger." Muttered one with his hands up and longish shaggy hair that Alice could all too easily recognise. "You might want to-"

"_Shut_ it Black!" hissed the only girl in the party, "_All_ four are in _serious_ _trouble_ right now-"

"Come _off_ it, Lily." The one addressed as 'James' rolled his eyes. "You were just as secretly eager to do this as we were. Don't deny it."

"I'm _not_ denying it-"

"Come off it." Muttered James.

"Guys, seriously!" Said the one with scars over his face and brown hair. The situation suddenly hit Alice, running round and round in her head as; _I know these people_, _there was a time I would actively associate with them. Why was I quite so mad as to do that? _The five were only still standing because they had paralysed everyone with crippling disbelief.

"James Potter, I am serious. You have _five_ _seconds_ to-" But James had finally listened to his friends and looked around the room.

"Umm, Lily?" he pointed his finger at all the wands headed in their direction. "You might want to..." He trailed off, but Lily looked anyway, and... smirked.

"Ha! They don't seem very pleased to see you."

"Lily." Whined Remus, (of course Remus was here, and so was Peter, trying to hide behind his friends, and Black and Potter and, just to round things off, Lily Evans), "They're looking at you too."

"Oh." Lily looked at them all, seemingly bewildered. "Well, that's a bit silly of them."

Just as Alice finally became aware that Frank had, when the five arrived, immediately positioned himself in front of her and felt a bubble of warmth burst up her chest, Moody, wand shaking with rage, growled, "_Identify_ _yourselves_. _Now_."

Smirk back in place, Lily pulled out her wand, sniggered as they all flinched, and turned to James. She twirled it between her fingers, and James' eyes warmed as he looked at her.

"Mr. Potter," Drawled Lily, "Would you be so kind as to help me out?"

They must have had some physic mind link, because with just those ten words, James understood exactly what she meant and drew his own wand. They stood shoulder to shoulder, wands held loosely in fingers, but each so attuned to the other, weight perfectly balanced, that Alice suddenly remembered hearing about that thing in the five's seventh year, that ended with a whole class in the hospital wing, and James Potter with a broken nose...

"Gentlemen." James said; voice light, "Ladies. And anything else that might be here, I present, James and Lily."

A white glow burst from each wand, turned silvery and impossible to look at, then cleared. When they finally could see again, Alice had to gasp, because the sight really was very pretty.

"Great," groused Sirius, "Don't bothered introducing _us_, oh no. Just you and your _girlfriend_."

"Well." Said McGonagall faintly. "The five of them are about the only people I can think of who would try this."

The majestic silver stag, standing, head proud and antlers reaching for the ceiling, turned and looked, with liquid mercury eyes, at the shining doe by Lily's side. Alice saw that at some point, the two of them had starting holding hands.

"Well." James turned to Lily brightly. "I think that went well."

"Idiot."

Break

"What I don't understand." Muttered Moody fiercely, still seething from the stunt earlier. "Is how you got past the guards we set round this place."

"Oh please." Said Lily from where she was sitting next to James around the huge table. She tilted her head at James and his friends. "_They_ said it was a hypothetical question, something along the lines of; 'get past some medium strength wards while leaving them intact behind you', lent me Remus' brain for about half an hour, and a tea break, and then here we were."

"_Medium strength wards?" _Moody was going red in the face.

"You don't even like tea." Pointed out James to Lily, quite reasonably.

"Not the issue here." Lily waved a hand. "Why didn't you get Professors Flitwick and Dumbledore onto it? Then it might have taken a day to work out."

"A little more respect please, Miss Evans." McGonagall looked over her glasses disapprovingly.

"Sorry, but you're talking to someone who got over a hundred percent in her NEWT Charms here, practical and exam, I'm allowed to criticise."

"Yes, but what did you get in Transfiguration Lily?" asked James sweetly.

Lily looked away from him crossly. "...E." she said finally.

"Oh, really? Y'know, I seem to recall someone you know managed to get an O in that particular subject... and... most of his other ones as well..."

"Yes alright, you're a genius James, we get it."

"I really must say, since leaving Hogwarts, you seem to have lost some sense of respect Evans." McGonagall's voice had turned decidedly frosty.

"Sorry, Professor." Lily grinned casually, not the least apologetic. "But since I graduated, the only person who has authority over me is _me_." She paused to consider. "And maybe the Ministry and some of the Auror people or something."

James lent back and grinned sideways at her. "And me of course."

She shot him a withering look. "Don't kid yourself, sweetie."

"Okay." He turned to Moody and smiled. "So, how do we join?"

"What?" he barked. "What makes you think you _can_ join?"

"I'm sorry." Sirius leaned forward onto the table. "We just found the location of your secret base, broken the enchantments on it, Apparated in under you noses, and have just pointed out that we have at least three geniuses with us, Moony too modest to say anything by the way, and you're saying we _can't_?" He sat back. "I think I'm going to like it here. You're all mad."

Moody and McGonagall exchanged a look. _I think, _McGonagall communicated silently, _We're stuck with them_.

Break

1) THIS IS SO OVERUSED BUT SOME HOW IT'S STILL FUNNY. Lol, but I won't be using it in Takes Notice, because it is a little overused. :) This is (obviously) set in 7th year when James and Lily get together, and that fact shouldn't be a spoiler because if you haven't worked out that that is going to happen I worry about your mental health. Sirius-ly.

2) I read somewhere that, unlike Frank and Alice who became Aurors, James and co. went straight from school to Order, and lived off James' wealth, (and smoked pipes, lol not really, though that would be awesome) but I thought that McGog and Dumbledore wouldn't be too keen on them giving up on getting careers so... they had to do some persuading to join. Oh! Oh! There's a plot hint in there! Hidden so (un)subtlety you'll NEVER FIND IT.

3) This was purely so I could include the bit when Lily denies James any sort of boyfriend related authority over her. (HE IS TOTALLY WRAPPED AROUND HER LITTLE FINGER, THE TOOL.)

Aaaah, self indulgence. Fear not! The next chapter is well underway and all that jazz, but these hit my brain just as I was starting to sleep and demanded I write THEM, so here we are at 12:33am. :( enjoy the randomness.


End file.
